Bloomfield 1970 aka Guts aka The Hero , Richard Harris plays Eitan an aging footballer (think George Best, wasting his talent )who has nothing to look forward to, girlfriend is a blossoming sculptress on the verge of a big career brake. Eitan needs a brake to live in her world to keep the girl or lose the girl, does he throw the match or not, can his body take another pounding etc etc etc . Throw in a 10 year old Nimrod obsessed with Football, who helps him see how important football is to the fans.

I'm amazed that little gem of a movie should surface on Netflix, it's grainy and looks like it's been mastered from an old VHS videotape, well done Netflix for this.

Back to the movie , Its a strange film, filmed in Israel that hotbed of football in 1970. Harris spends the film shouting in an over the top dramatic way , he likes acting obviously. Directed by Harris so he must have felt a great affection for the film. Scored by Johnny Harris (no relation) who under pins each and every scene with queasy strings and orchestration along with cheesy ballads, one of which is co written by Maurice Gibbs. What of the film, its all pretty obvious and cliched but given that its badly acted, poor continuity its actually very enjoyable for all those reason, if you like football films its a 7/10.

This began fairly well and cinematically uniquely different , due also to the locations, their desolation, which then whisks off to modern styled row of arttracrive cottages, mediteanean style. Some well crafted kids punch ups and decisions discussed and argued over by the young blonde 10 year old hero of the movie, Nimrod ! ( interesting historic name choice ! ) Progressing rapidly with more artsy flowing camera shots and off he goes seeking his hero in the big smoke ! Hero is a delight with well timed humor and agonising disagreements ensue , seemingly from all and sundry ? From this poin on the truth about humanity , strengths, doubts and indecisiveness all mixed in a fairly simplistic narrative . I had a real interest at how this would play out and the sometimes webs of intrigue were not too complicated to follow. Not too simplistic , whilst also weaving something akin to a web , occasionally of minor intrigue and normal daily human upsets ! All that said, i thoght some of this, as it moved on, over dramatic and a wee bit frustrating , even a little annoying ? One paricular camera angle was really badly executed when the boy was talking to his hero who was driving ? Possibly a studio scene which could have looked better than it did ? Prior to this movie i did not recall Richard Harris as a rebel who avoided conformity at all costs throughout his illustrious career ? As the previos reviewer said, this part suited his real life character very comfortably ! All in all, for me, this movie is enjoyable , at least partly due to my Anglo/Israel history and life . Many locations recalled , sights, sounds, only item missing is the memory of the unique food aroma , music and world class singers, albeit there is a rather delightful Sephardi dance sequence also worth a look ?